Claire King Partner

Claire specialises in the resolution of construction and engineering disputes through all major forms of dispute resolution including litigation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation. She has acted on a wide range of both domestic and international construction disputes including a recent multimillion-pound arbitration involving a nuclear implicated facility.

She recently acted for the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited (a company based in Trinidad) in respect of proceedings brought in the English Commercial Court for summary judgment in the sum of US$58,786,765 against BNP Paribas for amounts claimed under two standby letters of credit.

Examples of Claire's expertise include:

acting for a joint venture in relation to a dispute arising out of a nuclear installation for mobile nuclear reactors;

advising an employer on the termination of a contractor’s employment for failure to proceed regularly and diligently with their works pursuant to a JCT Design and Build 2011 contract;

acting for an employer against an architect and contractor in respect of a complex, multimillion-pound defects claim arising out of the construction of a hotel;

acting for an EPC contractor in relation to a dispute with their consortium partner as to liability for liquidated damages in respect of a power and desalination plant in Qatar, involving an in-depth understanding of the interaction between the power and desalination plants;

acting for an EPC contractor in relation to their extension of time claims for an Independent Water and Power Project in Oman. The value of the claim was in excess of £100 million;

acting for an EPC contractor in relation to an extension of time claim arising out of unforeseeable ground conditions encountered during the construction of a power station in the United Kingdom;

acting for an EPC contractor in respect of an international adjudication for allegedly defective potable water tanks at a power and desalination plant in Qatar;

acting for a German contractor in relation to ICC arbitration proceedings against a Romanian government entity arising out of a contract for the construction of numerous landfill and dumping sites across a widespread area;

acting for an Abu Dhabi contractor in an arbitration under the DIAC Rules arising out of a dispute relating to the Jumeirah Village in Dubai;

acting for a subcontractor in a series of high-value domestic adjudications involving a railway upgrade project including in respect of related enforcement proceedings.

Academics

Claire graduated from Somerville College, Oxford in 1999 with a degree in Modern History before converting to law. She qualified in Ashurst’s litigation department in 2003 where she acted on a range of high-value disputes (including the Sumitomo litigation), specialising in construction and PFI disputes.

Claire achieved a distinction in her MSc in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution at King’s College, London for which she was awarded the Bickerdike Allen Prize for the best examination performance by a first-year student, the KCCLA Prize for the best performance in the second-year examinations, the Arbitration Philip Ranner Prize for the best Module D (arbitration) result and the Society of Construction Law Prize for the best dissertation. She is a Solicitor Advocate.

Other activities

Claire was on the drafting committee for the 2016 update of the CIArb and Adjudication Society’s Guidelines on the Jurisdiction of the UK Construction Adjudicator.

Claire is a co-author of the Costs Management Final Research Report which reports on the Costs Management Pilot that ran in the Technology and Construction Courts and Mercantile Courts from 1 October 2011 until 31 March 2013 and is published on the website of the Judiciary of England and Wales.

Claire is also a co-author of Mediating Construction Disputes: An Evaluation of Existing Practice which was shortlisted for the prize for best communication or publication by CEDR in its 2010 awards and which received a CEDR award for excellence. Claire is a regular speaker on construction law issues.